The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) addressed his companions on the last day of Sha`ban, saying, “Oh people! A great month has come over you; a blessed month; a month in which is a night better than a thousand months; month in which Allah has made it compulsory upon you to fast by day, and voluntary to pray by night. Whoever draws nearer (to Allah) by performing any of the (optional) good deeds in (this month) shall receive the same reward as performing an obligatory deed at any other time, and whoever discharges an obligatory deed in (this month) shall receive the reward of performing seventy obligations at any other time. It is the month of patience, and the reward of patience is Heaven. It is the month of charity, and a month in which a believer’s sustenance is increased. Whoever gives food to a fasting person to break his fast, shall have his sins forgiven, and he will be saved from the Fire of Hell, and he shall have the same reward as the fasting person, without his reward being diminished at all.” [Narrated by Ibn Khuzaymah]

Plot: At mid-thirties, Elizabeth Gilbert seeems to have everything that a woman can ever desire: a successful carrer, a loving husband, a beautiful house and wonderful charm and beauty. However, she is not happy with her life. Suffering depression from a recent nasty divorce and disastrous relationship, Liz decides to travel abroad to Italy, India and Indonesia for a year. The memoir is divided into three sections based on the three country she visited. In Italy, she found all the possible worldly pleasure and expressions of beauty with its rich culture of arts, philosophy, languages and cuisine. In India, she found the true expression of happiness and a spiritual relationship with God. In Bali of Indonesia, she finds a balance between enjoying worldly pleasures and spiritual serenity. Through this year of travel, she is able to rediscover and refine her identity.

Why read? With its exotic description of each country and the author’s intriguing experiences, it is hard to believe that it is a non-fiction work. The explicit description of different cultures are very alluring and interesting. Besides, the author also talks about her change of feelings as she learn about how to deal with her life’s ups an downs, which makes you want to laugh and cry with her.

Finding a halal restaurant just became significantly easier for American Muslims, thanks to a new smart phone application launched this month that makes dietary religious observance a piece of cake.

Ask dietary-cautious Muslims in the west what their major challenge is when it comes to eating religiously-permitted foods and they’ll say finding a halal place on-the-go. But with Halalpal, an iPhone application that locates halal restaurants and eateries throughout the United States, sticking to a halal diet has become much easier.

The search engine application designed for Apple’s iPhone gives users a list of nearby restaurants with maps, contact information, price categories and recommendations.

The application scans the internet — mainly Google, Yahoo, Yelp and the online guide to halal restaurants and products known as Zabihah.com — to produce a list of halal eateries sorted by distance.

Rami Dodin, Halalpal’s 26-year-old founder, said his application fills the gap between technology and religion in daily life. After years of working in the IT business, Dodin realized there was a void between the services offered by the latest technologies and gadgets on the one hand and the everyday local needs of Muslim Americans on the other.

“There is an ‘access gap’ between local halal businesses and their goers that Halalpal fills,” Dodin, who is based in San Francisco, told Al Arabiya. “Many Muslims have iPhones and blackberry interfaces that are useful on the whole but do not have services that cater specifically to their religious local needs.”

“Halal eating is a very niche thing and it is hard to get specific search results off of Google and Yahoo because they do not target that specific customer group,” he explained.